Larkin was in Brazil earlier this year as part of an MLB camp for young players and according to the Associated Press his daughter “recently recorded a single in Brazil” called “Bring On The Nite” and “the song is one of the themes of the country’s top soap opera.” She performs under the name CymcoLe.

Larkin has his hands full, because Brazil doesn’t have much in the way of baseball history and is currently ranked 26th by the international baseball federation. This season Yan Gomes of the Blue Jays became the first Brazilian-born major leaguer.

Lats night, the Fish telecast included an interview with Rick Magnante, manager of the South African team. He and his players were at the game. Magnante talked about trying to get baseball into the schools, so it can compete with rugby, soccer, and other sports for kids’ attention.

Brazil doesn’t play for another two months but WBC Qualifying kicks off tonight (!!) with Israel vs. South Africa. Shawn Green is out of retirement to play for Israel. I wish there was some damn way to actually watch these games online.

As one of about six people in this country that actually gets geeked-up about the WBC (very much due to my upbringing as a soccer upbringing and therefore my geekiness about the World Cup), I also note that not only is Shawn Green on the Israeli roster, so is Gabe Kapler.

Also, Gift Ngoepe is back on South Africa’s roster. He was their best player three years ago, and parleyed that into a minor-league contract with the Pirates organization.

Just found out they’re actually streaming the qualifiers live on worldbaseballclassic.com. I was on the site this morning and didn’t see any mention of it so kudos to them for giving away live content for free but they really ought to do a better job advertising it.